After attending the same church for almost a century, a 103-year-old woman has been banned from going to services, according to ABC News. Genora Hamm Biggs has been a member of Union Grove Baptist Church in Elberton, Ga. since age 11. At age 103, she was told "not to come back to the church, not even on the ground," she said.
She disagreed with the Rev. Timothy Mattox since he was hired six years ago. On the first Sunday in August, he had her removed from the church after she spoke out against him at a church meeting.
"I was sad and unhappy. Very unhappy," Biggs said of receiving the letter barring her from church. Other long-time members also received letters, but along with Biggs they went back to church anyway. Mattox threatened to remove them, but they refused. Police refused to get involved in the disagreement, so the reverend cancelled services that day.
"This letter is to inform you that according to the by-laws of the Union Grove Baptist Church, and by vote of the active members, any membership or associations that you have had with this church are now officially revoked," the letter said, according to The New York Daily News.
"I believe it's because I do not agree on his sermons. That's the only reason I can give you," Biggs said.
The preachings of Mattox are "Holiness style," she says, which is not in line with the church's Baptist teachings. "At one point, he had a crew in here and they were hollering and falling out in the middle of the floor...We don't do that in the Baptist Church," she said, according to Fox News.
Biggs plans to keep attending services at her church. "This is my church, I love this church, and he cannot stop me from going."
Attempts by the media to reach Mattox and the church for comment were not successful.
